Three-quarters of UK children spend less time outdoors than prison inmates- survey

Time spent playing in parks, timbers and fields has shrunk dramatically due to lack of green spaces, digital technology and mothers fears

Three-quarters of UK children spend less time outside than prison inmates, according to a new survey revealing the extent to which day playing in parks, wood and fields has shrunk. A fifth of the children did not play outside at all on an average day, the poll found.

Experts warn that active play is essential to the health and development of children, but that parents dreads, absence of green spaces and the entice of digital technology is leading youngsters to lead enclosed lives.

Most of both parents polled said their children have fewer opportunities to play outside than they did when young. The new research is strongly supported by previous work, including a government report in February that detected more than one in nine children had not set foot in a park, forest, beach or any other natural environment for at least a year.

The truth is we are enclosing most children, told Mark Sears, at The Wild Network, which works to increase wild play. We are stifling their ability to be free, to be at their best as children and it is having significant impacts. He said increasing obesity and lower mental wellbeing in children was linked to a lack of physical activity.

Under the plan, national park authorities will engage over 60,000 young people a year through schools his mission to 2017/18. The plan is part of a government campaign expected afterwards this year that will aim to connect children with nature and the environment.

The new survey questioned a nationally representative sample of 2,000 parents of 5-12 year olds and detected 74% of the rights of children expend less than 60 minutes playing outside each day. UN guidelines for captives require at least one hour of suitable exercise in the open air daily.

The poll also detected children spent twice as long playing on screens as playing outside. It was funded by Persil, as part of the detergent brands Dirt is Good campaign.

Academic research shows that active play is the natural and primary way that children learn, told Sir Ken Robinson, an educationalist and advisor to Unilever, which builds Persil. It is essential to their healthy growth and progress, particularly during periods of rapid brain development. We must place adequate significance on play now, so that our precious children grow up into successful, well-rounded and happy adults.

Sears told: Mothers see the value of outdoor play and still it doesnt happen. Outdoor day is shrinking. It is a gigantic contradiction. He told fear of strangers, traffic or collisions deterred mothers from permitting children to play outside, as did absence of day due to busy school and work lives. Its day we gave mothers the tools, skills and confidence to do the things that they know are good for their children.

A separate study from the Wildfowl& Wetlands Trust( WWT ), published earlier in March, found that children from poorer backgrounds were less interested in being outdoors in nature than better-off children. But WWT detected this difference was overcome after just the working day spent learning outside.

Young kids that learn and play outside get direct experience of weather and the seasons and wildlife things that are only possible outdoors and they get to assess dangers, solve problems and develop ingenuity, told Lucy Hellier, WWT learning project administrator. The benefits may seem obvious, but in reality many children dont get to be outdoors in a natural environment in any regular or meaningful way. And thats even more common among kids from deprived areas.

In 2013, the RSPB published a three-year study, which concluded that four out of five children in the UK were not adequately connected to nature. In 2012, a National Trust report called Natural Childhood disclosed the growing gap between children and nature. Less than one in ten children regularly played in wild spaces, it told, compared to half of the rights of children a generation ago.